The price for a gallon of gas in my area is now $3.35, and is projected to be $4 here by Memorial Day, the traditional beginning of the tourist season on the Massachusetts coast. A 12 gallon tank, then, will be just over $40 to fill, and even at 27 miles per gallon for my 5-speed economy car, will last me only about 8 days.

At the time of the 2004 presidential election, the price of gas was $1.85 per gallon, according to official energy statistics of the U.S. government. That represents an 81% increase in the price of one gallon of gas during the second term of Mr. Happy. If my income had increased 81% since 2004, I’d have nothing to say about it, but that didn’t happen.

Bread is running over $3 a loaf here, up from just over $1 in 2004, the beginning of Mr. Happy’s second term. Winter heating costs have increased more than 100%, with home heating fuel locally about what gasoline has been. Housing values have dropped by, depending on the broker you speak with, somewhere between 20% and 40%, and that’s only if you can find a buyer. Buyers aren’t finding too much mortgage money available, and banks aren’t making new business loans these days except to the very lowest risk borrowers. Foreclosures are ubiquitous.

Our local newspaper publishes weekly the names of local service men and women whose lives have been sacrificed halfway around the globe for a cause that is no longer clear or convincing. The front page of the newspaper is reporting a suicide bombing in Iraq that has killed at least 50 at a funeral.

The U.S. dollar has hit a new low in trading today, as the euro surged to $1.5982. Talk of recession is a daily occurrence, not so much anymore about whether we are in one, but rather how long it will be with us.

Last night the two remaining Democratic candidates for president met in a televised debate, answering questions from Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous. Let’s compare the list of subjects they chatted about with the list of issues we “average” folks are facing every day in our lives.

They talked about church pastors and Reverend Wright. Doesn’t help with the price of gasoline for my car.

They talked about accepting the vice presidential position on the Democratic ticket. Not going to reduce the price of a loaf of bread for my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

They talked about American flag lapel pins, who wore them and who didn’t. While I might choose to wear one myself, it won’t help me when I apply for a bank loan to keep my business alive.

They talked about an “umbrella of protection” over the region of the Middle East, and the circumstances that might cause them to consider a “protective,” as distinct from “pre-emptive,” attack on Iran. That’s not going to save American military lives in a war that was ill-conceived and founded upon misrepresented (if not made up) facts.

The New York Times reported in this morning’s issue that Senator Obama gave “arguably his weakest performance,” suggesting he had lost the debate to Senator Clinton’s relentless challenging of his record and his views. I couldn’t help but feel that I lost, too. The debate ended with neither candidate giving me any reason to believe my gas prices are going to drop, that bread is going to be cheaper for my sandwiches at lunch, that my business will be okay, that my brothers and sisters in the military will come home soon and safely, that my country won’t become embroiled in another war front in Iran.

I like Chris Matthews, and try to catch Hardball on MSNBC as often as possible. While he may talk fast, and talk over his guests, and sometimes be a little annoying in doing so, he’s smart, and he gets it. He really gets politics. He made a comment this morning on Morning Joe about the two key questions people ask when deciding who gets their vote: is the candidate one of us; and, is the candidate “okay.” He’s right, too.

No one can run for president of the United States who is not elitist to one degree or another. Imagine the ego and the sense of self, as I have written of before, one must have to think he or she is “the one” out of our 300 million who is more deserving than any other to hold that office. Elitist doesn’t come close to describing such a person, so never mind that notion. We can only hope that the one who becomes our president has some inkling of what “we” contend with every day. I don’t expect our president to help me – - but I do expect our president to help “we.”

Last night’s debate wasn’t about “we,” and had nothing to do with me. They’re still slugging it out for their party’s nomination. Clinton was going after the super delegate votes last night, not my vote. Obama came across as exasperated, as though answering the lingering and not-going-away questions about his pastor and his friends and his mis-statements was beneath him.

I don’t want to have to choose between gas and bread. I don’t want to lose my home or my job. Answering those questions, responding to those issues, will tell me whether either of them is “one of us.” After that, I’ll decide if he or she is “okay.”